A GAMBLER'S DOOM.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1714, 4 January 1905, Page 91 (Supplement)

A GAMBLER'S DOOM.

(Freni Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, November 18. The world in general and England in particular appears to be well rid of the notorious alien blackleg Richard Kramer, who after defying police- pursuit for over eighteen months shot himself dead in a .house in Bloomsbury a few days ago just as the police thought they had effectually cornered him. Kramer was an out and out scoundrel who would stick at nothing to gain his own ends. He had a pretty black record in the Fatherland it seems, and for some years after lie came to .England gave i-ne police good cause to keep an eye on him. For some time he kept on the safe side of the law so far as could be ascertained, but in July last year the police discovered that lie was keeping a gaming house of a particularly noxious pattern in one of the bystreets off Oxford street. Under cover of darkness they raided the place and netted ever thirty gamblers, mainly foreigners of the breed the Aliens Bill is designed to keep out of the Old Country. Only one man escaped, and that was Kramer, who, in the confusion that followed the entry of the police, contrived to steal upstairs and make his way'on to the roof through a skylight. He was pursued, but when tlie police reached the roof their was no sign of their quarry, nor could they discover how he had managed to get away, unless, as one said, ho possessed wings, or had a balloon :n readiness. The next they heard o-f Kramer was that he was carrying on the confidence trick and other shady occupations on the Continent. Three months ago, thinking no doubt that Scotland Yard had forgotten him, Kramer returned to London, and, having obi a rd about £3O from his wife—a cl seen t woman whom be had persuaded to marry him by false pro fences——ho proceeded to America. His antecedents, however, seem to have been known to the police authorities there, and he found himself a marked man. So lie lie returned to London, and on Saturday last again visited his wife, demanding £SOO from her, and threatening her with death if she did not get the money ready for him hv noon on Monday. The frightened woman happily tc-ok counsel with a solicitor, who promptly placed himself in communication .with “the Yard,” The result was that three police officers were put on Kramer’s track, but he, finding his . wife from home, appears to have suspected a trap, and, having obtained admission, promptly locked and bolted the premises up fore and aft, ordering the servant to let no one in save Mrs Kramer. The girl, however, was easily deceived into opening the door, and in a twinkling Inspector Kane and his men were in the house. Rushing upstairs whilst liis companions kept watch below,-the inspector heard the report of a revolver, and a bullet whizzed over his head. Another report followed almost instantly, and on reaching the second landing lie found Kramer .stretched out on the floor, dead. The desperate man had shot himself clean through the heart. Kramer was a good-looking follow, still in the early thirties. He was a German by birth, and appears to have taken to evil courses very early in life, and to have left Ids mark in a- good many countries. It is believed that he was imprisoned a few years ago in connection with a gambling-den prosecution. and it is known that in 1900 he was in the hands of the Scotch police on a charge of thieving jewellery from a northern hydro, but in that ease he got the benefit of the Scotch verdict of “ Not Proven.”